Kochi: A study conducted by the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), in collaboration with the Kerala Agricultural University and the Regional Engineering College, Kozhikode, has recommended the adoption of a different agricultural strategy for tribal development in the new millennium.

According to a report on the study by V Nandakumar in the latest newsletter of CESS, the strategy should be one of optimisation of income and employment opportunities from a unit area through integrated farming, involving crop, livestock and allied complementary sectors.

It found that there is a shortage of even ordinary agricultural implements in the tribal areas, it asked the government to distribute them either free of cost or at a subsidised rate to the tribals to facilitate them to resort to proper agricultural operations.

The study also underscored the diffusion of technological changes in the agricultural sector through proper soil and water conservation measures and integration of pest and nutrient management. “In drought-prone areas, water harvesting should be encouraged. Biomass processing industries have to be made an integral part of tribal area agricultural development, for which proper training activities should be organised, especially for the womenfolk.”

The study, which was conducted as a centrally sponsored scheme of the Scheduled Tribes Development Department, has covered tribal settlements in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Kottayam and Idukki districts. Its main purpose was to find out ways for improving the social and economic status of tribals through improved practices in agriculture and allied sectors.
The study was also aimed at developing five tribal settlements — one in each district — as models. It found that the tribals who constituted a little more than 1 per cent of the population were the most economically and socially-deprived class. Most of them lived in rural areas, mostly within the forestlands of the Western Ghats.

Most of them were engaged in agricultural and related activities but they lacked the knowledge of modern methods of cultivation. They have no proper land ownership documents for the land occupied by them. Because of it, loan facilities through land mortgage were not possible. Cultivation of horticultural or cash crops on commercial scale was not possible because of poor pest management.

The major cash crops raised were rubber, coconut, coffee, cardamom and pepper. The other crops include yam, colocasia and minor tubers. While the net income from rubber declined considerably in the recent times, pepper and cardamom cultivation continued to be profitable.

Heavy rains during monsoons caused high runoffs, which resulted in massive soil erosion and huge landslides. During the dry season, there was acute water shortage. The study found that water and soil conservation in tribal settlements remained badly neglected.

The situation was so bad that most tribal settlements in the Western Ghats area faced acute drinking water shortage during the lean months because of the steep slope conditions prevailing in the hill tracts. It called for the implementation of soil and water conservation measures urgently in Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Kottayam districts.

Steps to improve the fertility of soil and changes in cropping pattern were among the other recommendations made by it. It attributed the impoverishment of land to unscientific and unassisted agricultural practices followed in the tribal hamlets.

The cropping pattern in many tribal settlements of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam showed a predominance of rubber (over 70 per cent of the area). The Rubber Board was behind it, but the cost analysis of rubber at the prevailing rates showed that at least in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta the tribals were at a great loss.

It, therefore, called for retaining at least 50 per cent of the area under the existing multiple cropping pattern in the settlements that had not been brought under rubber cultivation so far. The study was of the firm opinion that adoption of improved agricultural practices, use of good quality seeds and planting materials with changes in the cropping pattern based on crop suitability suggested for the locality could improve the net return from the land substantially.